Obama’s first rallies target swing states

LOCATION, LOCATION:The US president is launching his re-election campaign with mass rallies strategically held in states that have significant portions of electoral votes

Reuters, Washington

US President Barack Obama greets people at Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, Virginia, on Friday after giving a speech about affordable education.

Photo: EPA

With his wife at his side and Air Force One as a campaign plane, US President Barack Obama was to hold his first political rallies of the 2012 presidential race yesterday, targeting two swing states that could be critical to his bid to retain the White House.

Obama, a Democrat, formally launched his re-election effort last year, but official political events have been confined to fundraisers since then.

That changes this weekend.

The president, who won the 2008 election due in part to huge rallies across the US, hopes to regain that momentum with events in large arenas in Columbus, Ohio and Richmond, Virginia. Thousands of people are expected to attend.

Since Republican Mitt Romney became his party’s presumptive nominee, Obama has criticized his opponent in formal and informal situations — a sign that he is ready to start the attacks that are expected to characterize a potentially ugly and negative campaign. He is likely to be sharply critical of Romney during his Saturday rallies.

Republicans accuse Obama of infusing politics into his official White House events and scoff at the notion that his campaigning is just starting.

The president has done official trips in recent months to highlight his energy record and to tout proposals to reduce expenses for students — young people are an important constituency for his campaign.

“While Mitt Romney has been busy endearing himself to the Tea Party and making promises he can’t keep, we’ve been busy building the largest grassroots campaign in modern American history,” he added.

The Obama campaign has mapped out several strategies to win the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the US presidency, and the choice of states for his inaugural rallies was not coincidental.

Ohio, with its large cache of 18 electoral votes, is a particularly coveted prize. No Republican has made it to the White House in the past century without winning it. Obama bested rival John McCain there in 2008.

Ohio has struggled with a loss of manufacturing jobs, but its unemployment rate, at 7.5 percent in March, is below the national average, which was 8.2 percent in March and dipped to 8.1 percent in April.

Virginia had an even lower unemployment rate in March, coming in at 5.6 percent.

Those figures could help blunt Romney’s attacks on Obama’s economic record.

Obama’s campaign also hopes to capitalize on union anger over an attempt by the state’s Republican governor, John Kasich, to limit collective bargaining rights for firefighters, police officers, and other state workers. The law was later repealed.

Various polls show Obama is leading Romney in Ohio and Virginia. An average of polls by RealClearPolitics showed the US president ahead in Ohio by 4.2 percentage points and ahead in Virginia by 3.2 percentage points.

The Obama campaign will also try to capitalize on an advantage with dissatisfied women voters in the state since Republican governor Bob McDonnell promoted legislation that was hugely unpopular among the female demographic. If it had succeeded, the law would have required women to undergo an invasive trans-vaginal sonogram before getting an abortion.

Obama’s wife, Michelle, will also help attract the female vote. The popular first lady, who has held fundraisers across the nation for her husband’s campaign, will be at his side for both rallies.